Firearm loaded condition indicator



p 1968 D. w KELLEY 3,401,665

FIREARM LOADED CONDITION INDICATOR Filed March 8, 1967 IN VEN TOR.

United States Patent 3,401,665 FIREARM LOADED CONDITION INDICATOR Donald W. Kelley, Powderly, Tex. (Donald W. Kelley, RA18450077, Hq. Co., V Corps CMMI, APO New York 09079) Filed Mar. 8, 1967, Ser. No. 621,544 4 Claims. (Cl. 116-114) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to firearm safety devices and more particularly to an indicator which will clearly and visably tell the handler of the firearm that a shell is within position within the firing chamber of the action of the firearm.

Another object of this invention is to provide a firearm loaded condition indicator which will serve as a positive visual indicating means to tell whether the firing chamber is empty or not.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a firearm loaded condition indicator which will be particularly useful for hunters in that it will provide the hunter with a better chance for obtaining more game, as well as providing an extra safety precaution. It is common knowledge when a hunter has been. hunting and prepares to put his gun away, there is always the chance that when he operates the action of the firearm, and a shell does not come out, it may still be within the chamber. This is always the one that kills because the hunter does not have a way of seeing into the firing chamber.

When a hunter is on a deer stand and along comes a deer and the hunter is sure there is a shell in the firing chamber, but pulls the trigger and nothing happens, thus when he attempts to operate the action of the firearm, the deer gets away. A firearm provided with this invention will prevent this from happening as all the hunter has to do is check the opening in the side of the rifle behind the action, and he will quickly observe if the firing chamber has a shell or not by the showing or not of a red coloring through the opening. If red shows through the opening of the firearm, the user then knows that a shell is in the firing chamber and if it does not show red, in the opening, he will know that a shell has not been placed into the firing chamber.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a firearm loaded condition indicator which will have pin and piston means, being spring-loaded within a sleeve, the pin being urged rearwardly on the base of the shell casing in the firing chamber urges the pin rearwardly to show the red markings on the periphery of the piston of the device.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon a consideration of the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein a satisfactory embodiment of the invention is shown. However, it is to be understood 3,401,665 Patented Sept. 17, 1968 that the invention is not limited to the details disclosed but includes all such variations and modifications as fall within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary side elevation view of a firearm embodying the elements of this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the lines 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view similar to FIGURE 2 but showing the shell casing removed therefrom;

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the lines 44 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a side elevation view of the cap screw shown in FIGURES 2 and 3; and

FIGURE 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the lines 6--6 of FIGURE 2.

According to this invention, a firearm loaded condition indicator 10 is provided with an elongated cylindrical sleeve 11 which is fixedly secured within firearm 12. A piston 13 is slideably received within sleeve 11 and its periphery is colored red in order that it may be easily seen through the opening 14 and the opening 15. Openings 14 is sleeve 11 and 15 of firearm 12 are in alignment with each other. A forward shank 16 of piston 13 is freely received within opening 17 of externally threaded plug 18. Plug 18 is provided with a pair of spaced apart indentations 19 in order that it may be removed by an spannertype wrench (not shown). Plug 18 is threadably received within end wall 20 of firing chamber 21. A rear shank 22 of piston 13 is freely and slideably received within a sleeve 23 which is anchored in the rear of sleeve 11 and a disk portion 24 on shank 22 provides a bearing surface against one end of a coil spring 25, the other end of spring 25 springly urging against the closed end of sleeve 11.

In operation, the shoulder of shell 27 within firing chamber 21 urges against the shank 16 of piston 13 thus driving it rearwards within the firearm 12 so that th red colored outer periphery of piston 13 is visible through the openings 14 of sleeve 11 and 15 of the firearm 12. The red color periphery of piston 13 serves to visually indicate that the firing chamber 21 is loaded with a shell 27 and that the firearm 12 is ready to fire.

It will be noted that firearm loaded condition indicator 10 is offset from the firing pin mechanism within the firearm 12 thus preventing any possibility of the primer within the shell 27 being set off accidentally.

What I now claim is:

1. In a firearm having a firing chamber, a longitudinal cylinder in the firearm having an opening therefrom communicating with the firing chamber, an aperture through the wall of the cylinder, a piston slidably disposed in the cylinder, a forward shank carried by the piston extendable through the opening engageable by a shell in the chamber to move the piston rearwardly of the cylinder; spring means between the piston and the cylinder to urge the piston forwardly and the forward shank inwardly of the firing chamber when no shell is in the chamber; said piston being so related to the aperture that it is visible through when moved rearwardly by a shell in the chamber and is not visible therethrough when moved forwardly by the spring means when no shell is in the chamber.

2. The combination called for in claim 1 with the addition of guide means between the cylinder and the piston to maintain the piston in axial alignment in the cylinder.

3,401,665 3 4 3. The combination called for in claim 2 wherein the References Cited guide means includes a guide sleeve secured centrally of the inner end of the cylinder and a guide pin carried by UNITED STATES PATENTS the piston slidably disposed in the guide sleeve. 1,219,896 3/1917 Yanert 4. The combination called for in claim 3 with the addi- 5 2,145,328 1/ 1939 Walther tion of a disk secured to the pin in spaced relation to the piston, and the spring means comprises a coil spring dis- FOREIGN PATENTS posed about the pin with one end abutted against the disk 436,279 1/1912 France.

and the other end abutted against the inner end of the cylinder. 10 LOUIS J. CAPOZI, Primary Examiner. 

